Heartstopper Aled

Heartstopper writer reveals which major character was cut from the show and why

They appear in all four graphic novels but are missing from the show!


The writer of Heartstopper has revealed the reason why Aled, a major character in all four graphic novels, was cut from the Netflix show.

Unless you’ve lost access to Netflix, Twitter, Instagram, and maybe the entire internet over the past few days, you’ve definitely heard of Heartstopper, Netflix’s new coming-of-age LGBTQ+ series written by Alice Oseman.

The series, adapted from Alice Oseman’s series of graphic novels of the same name, has taken the world by storm since its release on Friday, but fans of the graphic novels were quick to point out a major change in the show.

In the Heartstopper comics, Charlie Spring’s friend group consists of Elle Argent, Tao Xu, and Aled Last. In the Netflix show, Aled is missing and has been replaced with new character Isaac, played by Tobie Donovan.

Heartstopper Aled

via Netflix

Twitter users were confused about the swap, with one saying: “The only critique I have of Heartstopper is the replacement of Aled. I want him back.”, and another asking: “does anyone know why they took Aled out of heartstopper? /gen”.

Speaking to Hello!, Alice Oseman said: “Basically, Aled is a character in one of my other books, who has his whole own separate story and I decided that I wanted to be able to do whatever I wanted with this character so it worked to create a new character.”

The book Alice is referring to, Radio Silence, is their second novel published in 2016 which stars Aled as a principal character. Alice also spoke about the addition of another character, Imogen, who doesn’t appear in the comics. She said: “I came up with Imogen because I wanted Nick to have a friend who wasn’t one of the lads. We knew we needed a bit more drama and angst in the story and Imogen is the one who brings the drama midseason.”

Heartstopper is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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